The present invention relates to a recombinant microorganism, to a method for producing alanine and to the use of the recombinant microorganism for the fermentative production of alanine.

The present invention provides methods and compositions for reducing lactate production and increasing polypeptide production in cultured cells. In one aspect, the invention provides a method comprising culturing cells expressing a) a small interfering RNA (siRNA) specific for a lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and b) an siRNA specific for a pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDHK). In another aspect, the invention provides cultured cells or vectors comprising an siRNA specific for a LDH and an siRNA specific for a PDHK.

The invention relates to double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) compositions targeting the LDHA gene, as well as methods of inhibiting expression of LDHA, methods of inhibiting LDHA and HAO1, and methods of treating subjects that would benefit from reduction in expression of LDHA, such as subjects having an oxalate pathway-associated disease, disorder, or condition, using such dsRNA compositions.

A combination of an electrochemical device for delivering reducing equivalents to a cell, and engineered metabolic pathways within the cell capable of utilizing the electrochemically provided reducing equivalents is disclosed. Such a combination allows the production of commodity chemicals by fermentation to proceed with increased carbon efficiency.

A method for the preparation of 2,4-dihydroxybutyric acid from homoserine includes a first step of conversion of the primary amino group of homoserine to a carbonyl group to obtain 2-oxo-4-hydroxybutyrate, and a second step of reduction of the obtained 2-oxo-4-hydroxybutyrate (OHB) to 2,4-dihydroxybutyrate.

A butanol expression cassette includes a butanol production related genes and a fermentation regulatory element. The fermentation regulatory element controls the expression of the butanol production related gene and locates upstream of the butanol production related gene. The fermentation regulatory element includes a promoter, a ribosome binding site and a transcription factor binding site of a fermentation gene. A fermentation in which the fermentation regulatory element involves includes an acetic acid fermentation, an alcohol fermentation, a succinic acid fermentation or a lactic acid fermentation, the butanol production related gene is not the fermentation gene or a gene of an upstream product of the fermentation in which the fermentation gene involves. The present invention provides a recombinant plasmid formed by cloning the butanol expression cassettes in the expression vector. The present invention also provides a butanol production related gene expression method to express butanol production related gene by using recombinant plasmid.

The invention relates to double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) compositions targeting the LDHA gene, as well as methods of inhibiting epression of LDHA, methods of inhibiting LDHA and HAO1, and methods of treating subjects that would benefit from reduction in expression of LDHA, such as subjects having an oxalate pathway-associated disease, disorder, or condition, using such dsRNA compositions.

Provided is a technique for improving the translation efficiency of mRNA. The mRNA includes: a 5 untranslated region of an mRNA encoding a protein; and a 3 untranslated region having 40% or more and 80% or less complementarity to the 5 untranslated region.

A method for the preparation of 2,4-dihydroxybutyric acid from homoserine includes a first step of conversion of the primary amino group of homoserine to a carbonyl group to obtain 2-oxo-4-hydroxybutyrate, and a second step of reduction of the obtained 2-oxo-4-hydroxybutyrate (OHB) to 2,4-dihydroxybutyrate.

For applications in drug delivery, smart materials have been designed to respond to conditions within microenvironments of tissues or cells. The present invention features stimuli-responsive cross-linked hydrogels that respond to specific metabolites of disease. For example, protein-polymer materials of the present invention are configured to release their drug cargo upon encountering the higher lactate concentrations within tumor microenvironments.